Google market share

Yahoo/AOL status

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Arnett

1:11 am on Dec 27, 2003 (gmt 0)

I keep hearing and reading that Yahoo! is "dumping" Google. AOL has recently purhased it's own search engine. What's the "real" status of Google's relationships with these companies? They are large contributors to Google's dominance of the market.

Arnett

1:38 am on Dec 30, 2003 (gmt 0)

hello?

rfgdxm1

1:45 am on Dec 30, 2003 (gmt 0)

Yahoo has bought Inktomi and Alltheweb. It would seem odd they would do that unless they planned to move search in house rather than pay Google. Thus it is widely expected sometime next year, possibly early, that Yahoo will switch. Some people already have observed in test markets Yahoo is showing Ink SERPs. I haven't heard of AOL buying a search engine.

Arnett

1:55 am on Dec 30, 2003 (gmt 0)

I know about the Yahoo acquisitions. I keep checking Yahoo and AOL search results against my Google positions and they seem almost identical except for the secondary page results from the sites and lack of fresh dates. I,personally,expect Yahoo to add "try your search on...AltaVista or AllTheWeb" links to the bottom of their SERPS. It's been a long time since Inktomi had SERPS worth bragging about. Yahoo would be taking a big gamble dumping Google and replacing it with Inktomi because they could actually lose market share instead of gaining it. Web searchers are strangely loyal to their favorite search engines.

I keep hearing about Yahoo dumping Google in major press articles but I see no evidence of it. Funny,you never hear these press people retracting their statements that "Yahoo will be dumping Google in a few weeks..." They're the worst of the lot. I doubt that they have any actual facts to support their asinine claims. They're no more than cheap sensationalists and propagandists.

I haven't heard of AOL buying a search engine.

I read an article somewhere in WebmasterWorld that AOL had bought a multimedia search engine...

twilight47

2:10 am on Dec 30, 2003 (gmt 0)

I can't figure out what Yahoo is doing from my end. It's not Ink, it's not Google, it's not alltheweb. It's some yahoo amalgamation.

rfgdxm1

2:14 am on Dec 30, 2003 (gmt 0)

>Yahoo would be taking a big gamble dumping Google and replacing it with Inktomi because they could actually lose market share instead of gaining it. Web searchers are strangely loyal to their favorite search engines.

The problem I see with Yahoo using Google: why should people bother with Yahoo when they can use Google instead? Everyone already knows about Google. And, Google has been known at times to have less than stellar SERPs, and people could go to Yahoo when they had a problem with Google. Yahoo also has the option of Alltheweb. Alltheweb SERPs look fairly good to me. Yahoo may also be using the people they employ from Alltheweb to improve Ink performance.

percentages

2:24 am on Dec 30, 2003 (gmt 0)

>I doubt that they have any actual facts to support their asinine claims.

Yahoo have publicly stated that it believes Inktomi to be the best search engine and that it intends to utilize that technology in the future.

About 10 months ago the CEO of Yahoo Germany was interviewed and said that they would be switching to Inktomi by the end of the summer (2003 summer we all assumed).

I don't think you can blame the press here, it is Yahoo who are dragging their feet.

Yahoo Brazil is today using Inktomi results with a bit of Brazilian bias. Yahoo Canada was using Inktomi results, but I see Google back there now. Yahoo.com seems to use Inktomi results for certain IP addresses, haven't seen the results myself but my visitor logs show them for a tiny percentage of Yahoo users so someone somewhere is getting them today.

rfgdxm1

2:32 am on Dec 30, 2003 (gmt 0)

>I don't think you can blame the press here, it is Yahoo who are dragging their feet.

My guess is that Yahoo was exaggerating about thinking Ink was the best search engine. I suspect they kept Google longer trying to improve Ink SERPs.

[edited by: rfgdxm1 at 4:20 am (utc) on Dec. 30, 2003]

Chico_Loco

4:01 am on Dec 30, 2003 (gmt 0)

How much were these engines bought for by Yahoo? How much do Yahoo pay Google each year?

One other possibilty might be that Yahoo have no intention of dumping Google, yet they bought those engines for one main reason (with a couple of smaller reasons). The biggest reason being that the next time they sit at a negotiation table with Google, both parties will know that Yahoo! doesn't HAVE to stick with Google.. So how will google try and persuade them? With money, and a lot of it. Not give them cash, but DEEPLY discount them..

Google do need their logo on Yahoo, so in order to keep it they'll both charge them a lot less for the results AND give them an even higher revenue share on the adwords served, all the time, what are they doing on the side? why serving ads through AltaVista, Inktomi & AllTheWeb, using those engines as separate ventures, but just be having them they put serious intimidation Google's way :):)

Just a thought...

Kirby

4:26 am on Dec 30, 2003 (gmt 0)

Chico,

That occurred to me as well. I heard rumors at SES that Y! would flip the INK switch in January, but I think they are bluffing. I am ok in both, so it doesnt really matter to me, but I dont see how it benefits Y! at the moment to switch, unless they fear Google will invade their turf as a portal.

Powdork

5:36 am on Dec 30, 2003 (gmt 0)

When I check on yahoo from work I get the Google amalgamation mentioned above. When I check from home I get the exact same results as inktomi pure search. Also when I search at home the 'Search technology provided by Google' disclaimer is gone. There is much about this in the Yahoo forum.

gators

6:12 am on Dec 30, 2003 (gmt 0)

There is a very informative and quite detailed article about Google adn the various search engines in the Dec. 8, 2003 Fortune magazine. (You can probably get this magazine at a Barnes & Noble).

yes, it is fact. Yahoo has acquired Inktomi & Overture and has dumped Google.

MSN is in the process of developing their own search engine technolgy and its new operating system, due in 2006. According to Fortune, AOL, eBay, and Amazon are also drawing battle plans.

Great article!

shaadi

8:55 am on Dec 30, 2003 (gmt 0)

I read an article somewhere in WebmasterWorld that AOL had bought a multimedia search engine...